Pesticide Laws Blamed in Poisoning of Farm Workers

Federal and state controls over toxic pesticides have failed to prevent the poisoning of up to 300,000 farm workers annually, largely because the controls are poorly written and not enforced, according to a new study of pesticide regulation released Saturday.

The analysis, by the nonpartisan World Resources Institute, questions the usefulness of many legally required safeguards against pesticide poisoning and says that enforcement of such measures has “virtually disappeared” during the Reagan Administration.

An exception is California, which the study cites as having the strictest and best-enforced pesticide-control rules in the nation. But even in this state, reported poisonings of farm workers have risen an average of 14% annually since 1973, reaching a peak of 1,111 in 1982.

Approaches Assailed

“It is unclear, in fact, whether the Environmental Protection Agency or the states take a more muddle-headed approach” toward enforcing federal pesticide rules, Robert F. Wasserman, co-author of the report and a senior associate at the institute, said last week.

The Washington-based institute’s 18-month study of pesticide poisonings concluded that federal environmental laws have reduced consumers’ exposure to farm chemicals but have provided only lax protection to the 5 million-plus farm laborers who work in and around crop fields.

The report says that field laborers have been hurt most by the growing use of highly toxic, short-life pesticides that break down into harmless compounds before reaching grocery shelves. It accuses the EPA of “flying blind” in setting protection standards for farm laborers, saying that no reliable data exists on the effectiveness of most common safeguards against poisoning.

Banning workers from fields for fixed periods after a pesticide is sprayed appears to reduce exposure, the report says. But the EPA has set few “re-entry intervals” for specific pest killers and allows immediate entry to a sprayed field if workers wear protective clothing such as hats and long-sleeve shirts.

Effectiveness Questioned

However, Wasserman said, the EPA has no data to show whether protective clothing actually reduces exposure, and some studies indicate that it often is of little use.

In many states, the study suggests, even such basic precautions are being ignored because farmers have no incentive to obey pesticide laws and the states do not enforce them.

States are supposed to enforce federal pesticide laws under contract with the EPA. But Wasserman and co-author Richard Wiles, a private consultant, said that the agency has allowed the states to abandon serious penalties for violation of federal pesticide laws in favor of wrist-slapping measures such as warning letters.

The EPA data cited in the study shows that civil enforcement actions for pesticide misuse dropped 52% from 1981 to the 1982-83 average, and criminal actions dropped 42%. The number of fines was halved.

The report recommends that the EPA toughen enforcement of the major federal pesticide law, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, and that it set worker exposure limits for pesticides much as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration limits factory workers’ exposure to other chemicals.